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The Year Ahead: 2011

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We will return to our normally scheduled program -- Elysium Picks Something You Hate to Focus on This Week -- next time, but first it's time to close the door on the corpse of 2010 stuffed into so many Hefty bags at the backdoor and turn our eyes forward to 2011, which, I think we can all agree, will certainly be the best year ever for videogames.

A bevy of announcements and sneak peeks at the culturally bankrupt VGAs late last year added to an already intriguing list of possibilities for the incoming class. A solid lineup of highly anticipated sequels is punctuated by a few potential standouts in original games and even totally new IPs. Big hitters like id and Rockstar are set to launch big titles without falling back comfortably on the crutch of past successes, while BioWare is all in for 2011 with 3 major launches from major franchises. Kinect has launched to a successful reception, but now faces the same challenges the Wii once did to actually build games that take advantage. The 3DS is poised to provide the unique experience that is almost becoming trivially required with any Nintendo hardware launch, and Sony's plan is apparently to just keep being Sony.

Just thinking briefly about some of the titles we may have played by this time in our final apocalyptic year of 2012, our next long trip around the sun will likely see the launch of Dragon Age 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, LA Noire, Little Big Planet 2, Rage, Killzone 3, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3, Mass Effect 3, Gears of War 3, Rage, Crysis 2 and Dead Space 2, and that's just the handful of major AAA releases that I'm interested in. I'm certain that I've criminally left out some absolutely crucial game of 2011, that you are all welcome to grimace and glower at me about for forgetting.

But, for my money -- because isn't is just more fun to pick a Game of the Year before anything's even come out -- I'm giving my personal most anticipated game of 2011 to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This is, of course, operating on the assumption that Diablo 3 is destined to slip to 2012.

The release schedule for 2011 is so packed that 2/3 of the games I'm excited about could get delayed, canceled, or just turn out to be disappointments and it would STILL be an awesome year.

It's all a bit paralyzing, though, so drawing ONLY from the January, February, and March (or "Q1 2011" that I actually believe might make it out within that window) release schedules, I'm excited and/or curious about:

but I have to admit that I'm not thrilled with what I have seen so far of it. I desperately wanted a next gen SSX game. But this seems to different. I want to simply line up and race friend over the XBL.

It seems like every snowboarding game misses that simple thing that made SSX so much fun. Sure, it was cool to do tricks. But in the end, I want to race in a fantastical setting.

I'd take SSX Tricky as a direct port if they just added online races.

I'm not sure what EA has been teasing up with really applies to what I want. But it's SSX, so I am anxious to see what it is all about.

"I suggest we imbibe copious amounts of alcohol and just wait for the inevitable blast wave." - Castiel